Obscured by Clouds. The rough and ready blog of a cloud benighted biologist and amateur astronomer. Astroblog will cover my interests in astronomy, biology and Life, the Universe and Everything.

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Giant Sunspot AR2192, Easy Viewing Target, Unleashes X class Flare

Sunspot AR 2192 imaged using my Canon IXUS (400 ASA) and 4" Newtonian
(infinity to infinity focussing with a 25 mm eyepiece), there are
multiple sunspots, AR 2192 is the large obvious complex to the right of centre. Click to embiggen

3x Zoom under the same conditions as the previous image. Still blurred a bit with 1/640 second exposure. Sun drift and atmospheric turbulence. Click to embiggen

Giant Sunspot AR 2192 is big enough to be seen without magnification, just using eclipse viewing glasses. I could easily see it this afternoon with just eclipse glasses over the past few days. I did get the scope out today as well, as you can see above (EldestOne's High School graduation activities took priority over solar imaging I'm afraid).

Sunspot AR 2192 unleashed an X3.1 flare this morning, but sadly there was no coronal mass-ejection with it, so auroral displays are unlikely. As big as Jupiter, this is the biggest sunspot of this current solar cycle, and the largest since sunspot 486 11 years ago.

The is still a chance that this massive sunspot will produce an auroral-effective flare before it rotates away, but don't get your hopes up.